Using public library reference collections and staff

An exploratory study of reference services use in a public library was performed through fifty-seven user interviews in an affluent and primarily Anglo community in California. Two subsequent studies were conducted in Hispanic and Vietnamese communities. The data from the Angle sample generated a set of preliminary relationships: mediated and unmediated searches yield about the same user judgment of completeness; mediated searches yield a somewhat higher judgment of usefulness; users who do not ask for help ordinarily have a known source (not an index or catalog) in mind before coming to the library; and searches are overwhelmingly of a ''serious'' rather than ''casual'' nature, even to an outside observer. It was found that additional staff help might have improved the results for about 40 percent of the searches, including some cases when the user had had professional-level interactions with the staff. At the broadest level, the idea of the ''search in motion'' was affirmed and users were seen to avail themselves of reference services in a variety of ways. The findings of the Hispanic and Vietnamese studies largely echoed those of the original study; but the Hispanic and Vietnamese respondents used the reference collection more often for school, and they-especially the Vietnamese-more often brought broad subject needs, rather than requests for specific information, to the library.